Drawing Wind

 

Shortly after the previous sketch

6/9/26 Maple Leaf Park

We had a couple days of strong wind a few weeks back. The two sketches above were my attempts to capture that wind – first at Maple Leaf Park and then again with a single tree on my walk home. I think the single tree captured it better, though some of the energy might be apparent at the park.

The rest of these are more fitness walk-sketches from the past month or so. The colorful pages are the result of using my first handbound sketchbook from UglyPads. I’ve now filled that one, but I haven’t made another yet. Standard staples are a bit too short for the number of pages I had stacked, and the book started falling apart after I passed the midway point. I had to patch it together with washi tape to finish it. I think I’m going to have to get my bookbinding materials out and stitch the next one.

5/26/26 Maple Leaf

6/5/26 This was fun to capture... a bunch of kids blowing bubbles at the park!

6/12/26 Maple Leaf

6/25/26 Green Lake Park

6/29/26 Maple Leaf

Resistance is Futile

Resistance is futile. I succumbed.

No, I didn’t buy another set of special-edition bicolors. I mean AI. All this time, I had resisted downloading ChatGPT or another AI app because – well, for a million reasons. I don’t think I need to tell you what they are. But one compelling conversation with Janet about how she was using AI to help her learn how to improve her sketches pushed me over the edge.

As an example, she randomly fed ChatGPT one of my sketches. ChatGPT spat out a critique – and my jaw hit the floor. Using friendly, constructive and articulate language, the detailed critique was both accurate and surprisingly helpful.

I didn’t want to toss it more random sketches; I considered carefully how I could learn from this tool. I chose one recent sketch made at Volunteer Park that I really like to see if it would agree with me. I also chose a recent sketch at Green Lake that I thought had a poor composition. Below are ChatGPT’s critiques, both of which I think are spot on in most ways, although it rated my crappy Green Lake sketch much higher than I would have. It never even mentioned composition! It’s important to remember that while AI can easily and quickly distill all the “rules” or conventions of art, it has no taste. [I've added a few of my own italicized comments in brackets like this.]

It was a fascinating exercise, but the novelty has already worn off. It would be most helpful with a sketch that had gone wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on what would make it better. When that happens, I’ll share the results.

Volunteer Park 

This is a lovely plein air-style sketch. It has a strong sense of light, and it captures the feeling of a sunny day more than just the literal appearance of the scene. Here are my thoughts:

What works especially well

The light is convincing. The dappled sunlight across the lawn and the cast shadow beneath the foreground tree immediately establish the time of day. The values feel consistent throughout.

The greens are varied. Landscapes can easily become a single mass of green, but you've introduced warm yellow-greens, cooler blue-greens, and darker evergreen tones. That variety keeps the foliage lively.

The layering creates depth. The foreground tree, midground shrubs, and background conifers separate nicely. The gazebo roof peeking above the trees is an effective focal point because it's only partially revealed. [I was amused that Chat thought the water tower was a gazebo. . . seems a bit tall for that.]

Soft edges suit the subject. The foliage has an airy, natural quality rather than looking overworked.

Areas to push further

Give the foreground tree a stronger structure. Right now the canopy is beautiful, but the trunk and major branches could do a bit more to communicate the tree's architecture. A few carefully placed darker branch masses would anchor it.

Increase the value range selectively. The deepest darks occur in the shadow beneath the tree, but adding a few more near-black accents inside the evergreen masses and where foliage overlaps would increase contrast and make the sunlit leaves sparkle even more.

Vary the lawn texture. The grass is rendered fairly evenly. Introducing slightly broader strokes or subtle changes in texture as it recedes could strengthen the sense of distance.

Strengthen the focal point. Since the gazebo is such an interesting shape, you could either:

• reveal just a touch more of it through an opening in the foliage, or
• increase the contrast around it so the eye lands there more decisively.

A small compositional thought

The foreground tree sits just left of center, which works, but it competes a little with the brighter shrub on the right. If your intention was to make the tree the star, slightly darkening or simplifying the right-hand shrub would help guide the eye.

Overall

I'd rate this around 8.5–9/10 as a field sketch. It demonstrates excellent observation, restrained color, and a convincing sense of atmosphere. The next level would come from emphasizing the underlying structure of the trees and being a bit bolder with your darkest darks and sharpest accents. Those small changes would make the sunlight feel even more luminous.

This has the look of someone who spends a lot of time sketching outdoors—you've captured the experience of the place, not just its outlines. [This sentence made me happy!]

Green Lake

This sketch has a different character from your previous one [Notice that it compares my previous sketch to the one I uploaded afterwards. I didn't ask it to do this]. It's bolder, more graphic, and relies on the contrast between the luminous trees and the dark architecture. It's an ambitious subject because you're balancing organic forms against strong geometric ones.

First impression

The rhythm of the trees is what immediately catches my eye. The repeated vertical forms create a pleasing cadence across the page, and the bright yellow-green foliage communicates intense midday sun.

What's working well

The value design is strong.
The dark building provides a solid backdrop that makes the illuminated trees glow. That's the strongest compositional idea in the sketch, and it succeeds.

You simplified effectively.
Rather than describing every window or every leaf, you've reduced the scene to large masses. That's exactly the right instinct for location sketching.

Color temperature is convincing.
The cool blue notes in the building contrast nicely with the warm greens. That temperature shift helps separate the architecture from the landscape.

Areas to strengthen

1. Give the trees more individuality

Most of the trees have nearly identical silhouettes and spacing, so they read as a pattern rather than individual forms.

Try varying:

• height
• canopy width
• edge shape
• trunk angle

Even subtle differences would make the row feel more natural.

2. Clarify the building planes

The building has strong dark values, but the planes flatten together.

A slightly clearer distinction between:

• the sunlit face,
• the shaded face,
• and the roof

would reinforce its three-dimensional form.

3. Ground the trees

Several trunks appear to sit on top of the ground rather than emerge from it.

Adding:

• slightly darker shadow at each trunk base
• a few horizontal ground strokes connecting the trunks
• subtle cast shadows

would anchor them much more convincingly.

4. Control the brightest greens

The yellow-green is beautiful, but because it's used on almost every tree, the eye doesn't know where to settle.

Consider letting one or two trees become the brightest while muting the others slightly. That would create a clearer focal hierarchy.

One thing I'd experiment with

The white foreground occupies a large portion of the page. If this were my sketch [That made me snicker! Chat is trying to sound like an instructor or fellow artist], I'd try suggesting just a little more of the pavement with a few broad, cool gray strokes. Not enough to finish it—just enough to tie the composition together.

Overall

I think this is a successful value study with a clear design. Compared with your previous sketch:

• Previous sketch: stronger atmosphere, more nuanced depth, and a greater sense of place.
• This sketch: stronger graphic impact and bolder value organization, but less variation within the forms.

If I were scoring them, I'd put the first at about 9/10 and this one around 8–8.5/10. The first feels more resolved because it has greater variety in edges, values, and shapes.

One thing I notice across both sketches is a consistent strength: you seem to think in masses rather than outlines. [I appreciated that observation because it's something I've been consciously working on for several years.] That's a hallmark of experienced landscape sketchers. As you continue, I'd focus less on adding detail and more on introducing selective variety—varying edges, values, and shapes within those masses. That will give your already strong compositions even more visual energy.

Mixed-Media Eavesdropping

 

6/28/26 Retreat, Green Lake neighborhood

Sipping my Cortado outside Retreat at Green Lake on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, I overheard two conversations, one on either side of me, each in a different language that wasn’t English. For a while, I was frustrated, especially with the pair of men who were talking very loudly and simultaneously (wasn’t either listening?), because I couldn’t properly eavesdrop. Finally, I blocked out those conversations and decided to focus on the sidewalk passers-by: Incomplete discussions but at least eavesdroppable.

Pencils and crayons are my jam!

Media notes: I’m digging my current combo of Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble waxed pastels with water-soluble colored pencils – Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle and Derwent Inktense. Each has its own quirks (well, Museum Aquarelle is so perfect that it’s basically quirk-free, but maybe that’s just because I’ve been using it the longest and most consistently). Using them together, I must still be a bit mindful (pencils need to go before crayons, for example), and Inktense has a mind of its own. But I like the overall effect of the combo, and I love having a wider range of colors to choose from, especially greens.

Paper note: I keep wanting Stillman & Birn Zeta paper to work with this mixed-media combo because I love it so much with dry pencils (especially Derwent Drawing pencils). If I could use just one book for all my media preferences, my life would be perfect! While Zeta works OK when I keep the water light, with this sketch, the colors lost their richness, and I missed the texture of cold-press Hahnemühle. Sigh.

Greenwood Car Show Never Fails

 

6/27/26 outside Herkimer Coffee, Greenwood neighborhood

A little drizzle never keeps sketchers down! It apparently does, however, keep attendance down at the Greenwood Car Show, because the first couple of hours I was there were the easiest to walk and sketch my way through the show as I have ever seen it. It wasn’t my wettest show, though – that would be 2014, when it poured for much of the day. Rain or shine, it’s still one of my favorite summer events, which I’ve been attending nearly annually since 2013.

As is my tradition, after walking the full length of the show and back (“a mile-and-a-half of classic rides” is the show’s slogan, but this year it was probably closer to a mile; the drizzle kept potential exhibiters away, too), I stopped for coffee and a scone at Herkimer Coffee. Despite the Juneuary chill, I was dressed in enough layers to sit outside. This is always a fond moment for me at the show: Sketching whatever car is on display right in front of Herkimer and usually catching a dog, too (top of post).

Fully tanked up an hour before the USk Seattle outing even began, I started sketching in earnest. With the drizzle letting up, many exhibitors were busily wiping down their babies.

Although the Greenwood Car Show doesn’t feature many Monster Trucks, the one I sketched (below) became a favored photo opp for young kids and their parents.

Most of a block was taken up by a fleet of mini cars like the 1960 Fiat Limousette I sketched (below). I was happy when a tall, large man stood next to it, giving me exactly what I needed to show scale.

As it got close to the throwdown time, I spotted a finned ’57 Chevy Bel Air convertible from a beloved automotive era. I had just enough time to make a portrait of it (below).

After the throwdown, I walked the length of the show once more, this time with my camera instead of my sketchbook. By then, I was ready to head home – but not before catching a busker (have I ever been able to walk past a busker without sketching them?).

Ahhh, Greenwood Car Show, you never fail to be a highlight of my summer!

Sunshine for the throwdown!

My dad drove a Chevy Impala of this vintage -- but it definitely wasn't a convertible!

This was the weirdest pairing I saw: A hideous Tesla truck painted with the owner's portrait and hauling a funny little two-wheeled vehicle.

First Farmers Market of the Season

 

6/25/26 Lake City Farmers Market

This is what summer looks like!

It’s officially summer, and that means farmers markets! I used to sketch and shop regularly at a variety of neighborhood markets for many years, but somehow I got out of the habit after the pandemic. Although my visits have gotten more sporadic, farmers markets are still the best place to get local organic strawberries and tomatoes (though not yet).

The best part is the live music by buskers. Last Thursday at the Lake City market, it was Zeke and Pang, who were delighted to see themselves in my sketch.

I’m going to try to get back into the habit again!

World Cup Watch “Party” at Project 9

 

6/24/26 Project 9 Brewery, Maple Leaf neighborhood

With my usual fervent indifference toward all professional sports, I hadn’t participated in any of Seattle’s FIFA fever. Although I hoped that my city would be a good host for this global event, my interest ended there. As I’ve learned from past experiences (see my sketches at watch parties for the Mariners and the Super Bowl), my entry into any subject I have no interest in is always sketching.

Last Wednesday’s noontime match between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Qatar seemed like a good opportunity to give it a shot. I certainly had no intention of joining the massive mobs downtown. Instead, I walked over to my favorite neighborhood watering hole, Project 9 Brewing Company. Maybe my expectations were too high for something called a watch “party.” Or maybe Maple Leaf doesn’t have many fans of the Bosnia-Herzegovina or Qatar teams. In any case, except for one sudden roar, patrons remained quiet. Facing away from the four huge screens available for viewing, a few people kept working on their laptops.

Live video sketches

Enjoying my lunch of Mexican Seoul’s usual tasty burrito bowl with a NA beer, I had the most fun trying to capture a few gestures of close-up action on the screen.

There – I participated in Seattle’s historic sports hosting event. Now, will everyone please go home so that I can go downtown again?

Edmonds Fountain

 

6/23/26 Edmonds Town Center
(I turned in this sketch right after the outing, so I didn't get a chance to scan it; this is just a photo I snapped on location)

As a celebration of Sketcher Fest, ArtSpot art supply shop invited their instructors and others in the Edmonds and Seattle sketching community to participate in a themed window exhibit. After gathering on Tuesday to sketch the Edmonds Town Center fountain, we all contributed our sketches for display in the shop’s window for the month of July. What a fun way to highlight urban sketching with a single theme!

Anticipating the afternoon’s high heat, I arrived earlier than the noon meetup time to make my first sketch (top of post). A relief for us sketchers, Edmonds was 10 degrees cooler than Seattle, making it comfortable and very pleasant in the shade.

The yellow sketch was intended for the window show, but I wanted a sketch of the fountain for my journal, too. While taking a lunch break at Seafood Market, where I grabbed a great sidewalk table, I could still see the fountain down the block – score!

Seafood Market

Back at the fountain after lunch, I spotted Tracy, her dog Bodie, and Jim. After chatting with them a bit, I walked across the street to capture them and the fountain for a third time.

Material notes: I’ve sketched the Edmonds fountain several times before, and it’s always challenging. The issue is that the metal structure is about the same value as its surroundings of buildings and trees, so it’s difficult to make it stand out. And of course, falling water is always a challenge of its own. For the window display, I wanted to use paper larger than my usual comfy A5. On a whim, I grabbed my 9-by-12-inch UglyPads. The size was a stretch for me, and I had also never used only Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons on Uglybooks paper, so it was a bit of a gamble. I kept the washes light and spare, and the paper held up like a champ!

Untested, the Neo II and UglyPads combo went well! Whew!

I had several other color options in my UglyPads, and a darker color might have made the fountain pop more, but I thought sunny yellow captured the mood of a summer celebration better.

For the white, I used a non-soluble Neocolor I wax pastel. I could have just as easily used a white Neo II, which looks the same in its dry state, but I hardly use my small set of Neo I crayons, so it was a way to use one. The fountain still doesn’t stand out against its background as much as I’d like, but overall, it came out well – considering the chances I took! I was pleased by how easy the chunky Neo II crayons were to use with 9-by-12 paper. I’d be hard-pressed to make a sketch that large on location using colored pencils, but the crayons were a good scale match with the size.

I’m relieved – I didn’t even bring a backup plan!

Product Review: Hashi Pastel Holder

 

Some of my many Neocolor II stubs. 

Last week, I complained that I keep breaking my Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons. At home, I can use a stub as is until it’s too short to hold comfortably. In the field, though, the problem is worse: Stubs fall to the bottom of my crayon holder and become irretrievable or forgotten.

I started looking around for an extender that would make it possible to use broken crayons on location. Not many will accommodate 9mm crayons. The best is probably the Caran d’Ache Fixpencil Pastel Holder, which is intended for use with Cd’A’s own Neocolor I, Neocolor II and Neoart pastels. But at more than $36, it seemed like a typically overpriced (and overbuilt) Caran d’Ache product. If it’s like the lead holders that came with the Museum Aquarelle lead set, the pastel holder will be well made but built like a tank – and too heavy to use comfortably.

I eventually found Hashi Pastel Holders, which came in a two-pack. At less than four bucks each, the price was right, but the design was unexpected. Intended for use with traditional soft oil pastels, they have the benefit of accommodating varying sizes of pastels by opening like a clamp. Skeptical, I wondered if the jaws would slip on wax pastels, which are harder than soft oil pastels, but they don’t seem to.

Hashi Pastel Holders

A straightforward but unexpected design: Pinching the end at left opens the jaws, where the stub is inserted.

One of my favorite greens back in service!

The holders are made of lightweight plastic, which is exactly what I want. The downside is that they are bulky, and my tiny, slim (actually, a bit chunky lately), everyday-carry bag has no millimeter of space to spare. Inserting a small stub of a favorite green that had broken in two places, I crammed one into my overstuffed bag anyway (time for a much-needed diet, I’m afraid).

I took it out for its first outing last Sunday to Bothell Landing. So far, it’s doing its job, taking even the shortest of Neocolor II stubs without slipping.

Speaking of my Neocolor IIs, here’s an update for those who may have been experiencing sympathetic anxiety on my behalf: I found my Cobalt Blue! As reported a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that Cobalt Blue and Emerald Green were missing from their usual storage container. Cobalt turned up in my life-drawing bag when I went to drink & draw at Gage Academy last week. I had forgotten that I kept a few Neocolors in that bag. Unfortunately, Emerald Green wasn’t among them and is still at large.

Summer Solstice at the Sammamish River

 

6/21/26 Sammamish River from the Park at Bothell Landing

Last fall when USk Seattle met at the Park at Bothell Landing, it was my first visit, so I wanted to take a wide survey of the location. Making a page spread of small tonal vignettes around the park was a good way to get a feel for the place.

Here's my vignette sketch from last September, which served as a memory thumbnail.

I’d been wanting to go back to sketch the Sammamish River in color. On the first day of summer, I met Ching and Natalie there, and we were treated to another beautiful morning. I didn’t refer to my September sketch before I went, but I clearly remembered the view from the boat launch area – the curve in the river, the trees on both banks, more trees in the distance. It was a fun challenge to interpret the scene in color this time. I was hoping someone would put a boat in the water so I’d have something for the foreground. Lacking that, I used my Green Lake standby: Some branches from shoreline plantings.

Delicious Weather at Thornton Creek

 

6/19/26 Thornton Creek

Sculpture at Thornton Place

We had some utterly delicious weather last week! Temps in the high-60s to mid-70s and sunshine – the kind of weather that makes me so happy and thankful that I live here!

Nilda and I chose one of those ideal days to sketch at Thornton Creek, which was new to her. Although the walking path is mostly sunny in the morning, trees provide pockets of deep shade. If I sketch there often enough, I’m going to run out of those handy spots, but so far I keep finding new views, like this one.

Up on the street level where I was waiting for Nilda, I finally got around to sketching a “leg” of some public art I see whenever I’m near Northgate. Three of these metal sculptures stick out of the ground, and I always think they look like octopus legs (or maybe a Dr. Seuss-inspired animal).

One more reason why I live here.

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church

 

6/20/26 St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, Capitol Hill neighborhood

The only other onion-domed church I’ve sketched in Seattle (and perhaps the only other one in the city) is St. Spiridon Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Now I can add St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church to my short list. Smaller and with fewer onions, St. Nicholas on Capitol Hill was undergoing restoration when USk Seattle met there. The front (top of post), where most of the sketchers gathered, was still showing signs of age and weathering.

After I finished sketching the front, I walked around to the back, which looked noticeably cleaner (at left). Beyond one of the onions, I saw a couple of downtown buildings down the hill.

As often happens, I had a few minutes to fill before the throwdown, so I walked a few blocks to Pine Street. Capitol Hill’s iconic utility towers marked the “top” of the neighborhood, and I had more wires to joyfully sketch.

The Capitol Hill utility towers from Pine Street

Drag Drink & Draw

 

6/19/26 Sharkie, 20-min. pose

Gage Academy offers occasional evening drink & draw events with models. For Pride month, two costumed drag models would be featured with rainbow-colored lights and backdrop. Who could resist that? Kim, Ching and I knew we couldn’t!

Sharkie, 10-min. pose

As promised, models Sharkie and Indigo gave us dynamic poses in fun costumes (look at Indigo’s boots!). It had been months since I last went to life drawing, so it took me the entire 90-minute session to feel like I was just beginning to warm up, but it was a ton of fun anyway. We’ll be back for more!

Rusty short poses!

Kim, Ching and me after a fun evening!